June 19, 2010

BP CEO’s yacht outing infuriates Gulf residents

This article in the Washington Post was too funny for me to pass up on posting. It’s like BP is trying to make a mockery of public relations! Notable excerpts below.

“BP chief executive Tony Hayward took a day off Saturday to see his 52-foot yacht “Bob” compete in a glitzy race off England’s shore, a leisure trip that further infuriated residents of the oil-stained Gulf Coast.”

“While Hayward’s pricey ship whipped around the Isle of Wight on a good day for sailing – breezy and about 68 degrees – anger simmered on the steamy Gulf Coast, where crude has been washing in from the still-gushing spill.”

“He noted Hayward is a well known as a fan of the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race, one of the world’s largest, which attracts more than 1,700 boats and 16,000 sailors as famous yachtsmen compete with wealthy amateurs in a 50-nautical mile course around the island at England’s southern tip.”

“The British press, much more sympathetic than the American media to BP’s plight, has expressed disbelief at the company’s strategy.

“It is hard to recall a more catastrophically mishandled public relations response to a crisis than the one we are witnessing,” the Daily Telegraph’s Jeremy Warner wrote Friday.”

“I think everyone has the right to do what they want in their free time, but he doesn’t have the right to have free time at all,” said Canevari, who scouts the bayous, bays and Gulf for driftwood and other found objects, and turns the debris into nature-themed art. “Not until this crisis is resolved.”